Records of the Royal Contract Estates, 1297-1774, including papers relating to the state of the estates; papers relating to the debts of King James I and King Charles I; papers relating to the sale of the various estates; indentures; financial accounts; surveys of various estates; auditors' certificates of the total rents of the manors and lands; law suits; committee papers and deeds.

Minutes and papers of various small, temporary committees of the Court of Common Council, 1668-1990. The Committees were formed to consider various matters including the election, remuneration and behaviour of officers and staff of the Corporation of London; consideration of the effects of various Parliamentary Acts and Bills; the historical rights and privileges of the City of London; the provision of cemeteries; parishes and benefices; metage, particularly of coal and corn; the reform of the Corporation; markets; building maintenance and preservation; debtors, insolvency and bankruptcy; the Gresham bequest; food imports; transport including railways; presentation of the Freedom to William Pitt; militia; the erection of monuments and statues; the funerals of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and Horatio, Viscount Nelson; legacies and bequests; care of orphans; poor relief; estate management; schools and libraries; City finances; water and gas supply; Port of London; sewers; regulation of trade and licensing; street lighting; prisons and compters.

Also papers relating to the general organisation and running of Court of Common Council Committees, including the decision to allow public and press to attend certain committees, 1974; lists of committee Chairmen and members for various years; committee books, 1690-1727 and 1813-1990; bills books, 1873-1884; notes on the historical powers of the Court of Common Council and the Court of Aldermen and notes on the streamlining of committees and administration, 1835-1965.

Mortgage and lease for Paradise Terrace, Milton Road, Hornsey, 1853 and 1855; leases for property in Shepperton; copies of court roll for Isleworth Syon Manor relating to parcel of land in Grosvenor Road, Twickenham with two messuages, stables, coach houses and buildings known as Grosvenor House and Grosvenor Cottage; and deed of composition and release releasing Joseph Blake of Harrow, linen draper, from his debts.

Papers collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising an agreement settling a dispute as to boundary line dividing plot of land no. 22, owned by Edwin Brier Woodford, from plot no. 21, owned by George Allen Aylwin, on Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, 1904; and assignment of debt of £36 15s. 3d. due to George Slark from Cuthbert Coates Smith and Bernard Edgar Aylwin, carrying on business as motor boat manufacturers under style of The Vaal Motor and Launch Company at Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, 1905.

Records of the British Mercantile Agency, debt collection business, including prospectuses, financial accounts, enquiries, letters and a damping cloth used to take copies of letters and accounts.

Access is restricted to records less than 30 years old where specified and 24 hours notice is required for access to all the records.

Letter from George Macirone of 163 Bishopsgate Street Without, [London] to Henry Clarke, Esq, 29 Nov 1826. Discussing repayment of money due to Macirone.

Autograph, with signature. A copy of Clarke's reply (probably written the following day), is attached.

Papers of Lord Morris Rokeby, including mortgage for property in Edmonton, statement of debts and letters.

Letter from Sara Coleridge of Keswick, Cumberland to [John] J Morgan Esq of 71 Berners Street, Oxford Street, London [a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was staying with Morgan's family in London], 5 Sep 1812. '... to request the favor of you to use your influence with my husband to prevail on him to send me a few lines immediately, for I have been so long [since Apr 1812] waiting for a letter from him ... I will thank you to represent to him that I want a little money very much ... for my sister [Edith] Southey having lost 30 pounds by the failure of the Workington Bank, and having occasion for money at present more than is convenient for S [i.e. Robert Southey, Edith's husband] to draw for - I own I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of not being able to settle my accounts with him ... I have bought the books for the boys; I was obliged to send to London for them ... I have also been obliged to get all their school books bound, the Aeschylus among the rest which was coming to peices [sic]. Please also say that we have not been able to find at Grasmere that "Reynard the Fox" which C [her husband] designed for Southey, and that probably he has it with him in town ...'

Autograph, with signature. A note in the hand of her 9-year-old daughter, also Sara, appears at the end of the letter.

6 letters from the Billingsleys to the [6th] Earl of Westmorland, mainly concerning coinage and the debts of Case Billingsley.

Records of the Court of Requests, City of London, 1595-1853, including committee reports; petitions; regulations; appointment of Commissioners; accounts ledgers; cash books; record of fees; summons books; warrant books; bonds and promissory notes, and other administrative papers.

Records of the Court of Requests Committee, Court of Common Council, comprising rough minutes and papers of a Committee appointed to examine the practice and fees of the Court of Requests, 1756-61; printed Report to Common Council, 1759; rough minutes and papers of a Committee to consider a Memorial from the Commissioners of Requests, 1768; minutes of a Committee to enquire into the practice and fees of the Court of Requests and the abuses of its officers, 1774-1788; minutes of the committee appointed to consider the propriety of an application to Parliament for an enlargement of the powers of the Court of Requests, 1830-1836 and committee papers, 1773-1788.

Papers of Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1826-1846, comprising letters to William Newton, his landlord, 1830-1845, relating to house repairs, his debts, requests for loans, death of his daughter, 1831; legal papers relating to Haydon's imprisonment for debt in the King's Bench, 1830, namely inventory of his goods for debt, authorisation to distrain goods, notice of court hearing; letter from Sir George Philips, 1836, concerning his picture 'Christ's Agony'; receipts for Haydon's life insurance policy payments, 1833-1845; Newton's marked copy of the catalogue of the sale of Haydon's effects, 1846.

Letters of attorney given by holders of South Sea stock in Amsterdam, The Hague and Geneva to London merchants respecting their stock, 1731-1739.

Records of the Society for the Relief of Persons Confined for Small Debts, including minutes; extracts of proceedings; Acts of Parliament; papers concerning J C Neild; financial accounts including legacy books, income books, general expenditure books, annual accounts and auditor's reports; papers regarding the disposal of surplus funds; bequests; press cuttings; correspondence; and histories of the Society.

The minutes contain reports of visits of inspection as well as names and numbers of prisoners assisted. A number of the papers relate to the destruction of the book containing the minutes and accounts of the Society 4 Mar 1818 to 5 Apr 1826 by John Camden Neild, treasurer 1814-1827.

Document relating to a plea heard at Westminster, 1807: Crichton Horne and Edward Finch, (plaintiffs) v John Moore.

Papers relating to property owned by the Bacon family, including copy of Act of Parliament to partition real estate devised by will of John Bacon of Friern Barnet containing an inventory of lands in question; notes of judgements in cases of debt brought against member of the Bacon family and accounts of debts and insolvency of Bacon family; legal opinion of liability of estates to creditors; agreement and conveyance for land in Muswell Hill.

Papers, 1638-1890, collected by Myers in the course of their work, comprising wills and a bond relating to Palgrave, Suffolk; Hampstead; Kensington (Old Brompton); West Twyford and Bloomsbury.

Records of West London Magistrates Court, 1877-2001, including court registers; registers for means enquiries, Small Tenement Act cases, civil debt cases, ex-parte cases, and licence renewals; Married Women Act orders; bastardy orders; domestic court proceedings; maintenance registers and Guardianship of Infants Act orders.

Court registers record the date of the hearing, the name of the informant or complainant (often the police), the name of the defendant, a brief note of the offence and the decision of the magistrate.

Domestic proceedings: a married woman under the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act 1895 and subsequent Acts could go to a magistrates' court and apply for orders which in certain circumstances would enable her to separate from her husband, have custody of any children and receive maintenance from him. Under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1844 a mother expecting a bastard child or who had given birth to one could obtain a maintenance order against the putative father.

A collection of letters, printed circulars, etc, mainly addressed to William Blackwood, of Messrs Stuart and Blackwood, Peebles, Scotland, 1859-1901. The topics covered reflect the firm's business activities: requests for legal advice or legal action; requests to act as agents or trustees; and legal advice or legal action on insurance, assurance and debts. A signficant proportion of the letters concern the Symington extension of the Caledonian Railway Company (1861).

Manuscript volume of accounts containing half-yearly lists of debtors, chiefly in Penrith, but also in Whitehaven, Cumberland, with amounts due and when paid, 1830-1834. Also includes accounts for groceries and other personal expenditure, 1856 and 1873-1883, and a loose bill rendered to Lady Morshead for malt, dated 1830-1831, and made out in the name of John Robinson, who may also have kept the account book.

Bundle of receipts, [1813-1847], for what appear to be payments out of the estate of Richard Jacobs to the debtors of various gaols, including the Fleet Prison, Marshalsea and Horne Monger Lane Gaol, London. A number relate to school fees or other educational requirements, possibly for the children of the poor.